Tucson

Just outside the campground office are seguro cactus. In some areas of this desert the cactus are blooming. Tree such as those above are blooming. Ken is not a happy camper because of his allergies. 

We camped north of Tucson in Oro Valley at Catalina State Park. Larry joined us most nights in his van conversion at the same campsite.

When the sun went down the cold started until an hour or so after sunrise. This type of cold was foreign to us as of lately. Back to a jackets in the evenings.

We saw a few desert animals during our time at Catalina - lizard, lots of ground squirrels with babies and hares with very long, perky ears. We did not see road runners or tarantulas as we had seen in the past.

The trees in this area have small little leaves because of the heat in the summer. The view from our campsites were spectacular, mountain views, looking just just like old westerns.

One of our favourite things to do in Tucson in the morning was go to Wholefoods. Coffee was the big draw. For those of you unfamiliar with the Wholefoods chain, it is a huge, health-food type grocery market. It carries lots of vegan protein substitutes for meat. It is supposedly up scale which is reflected in the prices. The first time we  encountered Wholefoods was in San Diego, Normal Heights. We were so impressed we look for this chain in most bigger American cities.  About a year ago Amazon took over the chain. Unfortunately things have changed. I did not mention that they have a huge food buffet featuring health foods often including tofu, brown rice, quinoa, you get the picture. Since Amazon took over we noticed that the main, daily menu did not appear to change over the days we were there. Before the menu seemed to change daily. Must say thought, the coffee was fantastic.  Ken says the internet is faster here now.

Tucson is where Larry left us to drive north to Flagstaff and then onward to Vancouver Island. We will see him, hopefully, next winter back in Ajijic, Mexico area.